Eco-licious

More color in the garden – particularly stoked about the lupine (top right) going nuts as the last two years the aphids were manhandling this plant so bad (this spring I neem-oiled the hell out of them every other day well before they even budded, that and the milder spring may have helped). The pink poppies? Definitely getting divided at the end of the season – that’s just one plant gone nuts!!

Well, damn. It’s June. How the hell did that happen. But it’s here, it’s unseasonably cool this weekend, and I don’t mind a bit. And in other news…

I support Kathy Griffin and fully agree with the Daily Caller editor’s view that she should not have apologized for the photo she took. People don’t do a damn thing when male comedians joke about gang rape and murder, or still vote for a man who bragged about sexually assaulting women (and accused of rape and assault by his ex-wife in a sworn deposition, multiple women over the years both inside and outside of his businesses, and a 13 year old girl) and encouraged our military to kill innocent women and children who are family of the supposed enemy.”The alarming part of the blowback from this story is the lack of support for Griffin from free speech advocates. As a comedian, Griffin and others play a vital role in providing unfiltered social commentary that sometimes speak truths that are too touchy for normal citizens to discuss openly. Now more than ever, it is important that we protect all Americans’ rights to express themselves as they please, no matter how tasteless it may sometimes be. Clearly Griffin’s joke was not very funny and quite graphic, but that does not mean that she does not have the right to put it forth. When Donald Trump won the presidential election in November, many touted it as a victory for free speech, and a sign that the voters think that PC culture has gone too far. But the same people who supported Trump as the anti-politically correct candidate are now condemning Griffin’s actions universally simply because it offended their beloved commander-in-chief.” (source)

Two words: dinosaur mummy. Now that is rad. Doesn’t excuse the ecological horror of Alberta tar sands, but a discovery nonetheless.

10 reasons to avoid talking on the phone is right up my alley, y’all. I do my talking on the phone for work, and probably did enough in my teen years to make up for this day and age. Back in the day I had a couple of friends who used to chide my lack of phone calls. Ironically, one of those people was the kind who was constantly talking to her kids while talking to me (rude on their part, rude on her part), so much so I stopped calling her because I knew we could never get through a conversation that way, and another who mocked my non-phone yet never picked up the phone to call me once. Oy vey.

Proud, caring and secular: athiests in adoption is an awesome article by a fellow non-religious individual who, along with her husband is tired of the stereotypes around adoption, not to mention the immense issue with so many adoption agencies discriminating based on religion and/or lack thereof, not to mention sexual orientation, marital status, and more. Hell, we were limited in the international adoption process as most countries have a “combined age” maximum of 90 years (I’m now 43, my husband is 49…we barely made it in back when we applied for Ethiopia 2 years ago). A current bill being presented in Texas is aimed at legalizing discrimination and fucking over prospective adoptive parents, allowing agencies to dictate who children go to based on their supposed religious beliefs. Seriously, I have never been so ashamed of my country as I have am with #45 at the wheel. (Don’t even talk to me about that fuckwit pulling out of the Paris accord)

I found this veteran’s post on military trainingto be incredibly insightful and one that everyone should read with an open heart and mind. Seems in this world you’re demonized if you criticize Christianity or the military, yet the world loves to mock and condescend to agnostics and non-violent peace activists. Even with many military family members, my husband and I remain staunch pacifists who view the service as it stands to be incredibly dangerous for the future of humanity, not to mention sickeningly dangerous for women. It was reported in 2011 that “women in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by fellow soldiers than they are to be killed in combat. At least 25% of U.S. military women have been sexually assaulted, and up to 80% have been sexually harassed.” (source) Any job that trains human beings to kill other human beings? That’s fucking messed up. And yeah, I’ve got a father and a brother and grandmother and grandfather who all served – it’s not about their choice to do this, it’s about how the military is marketed to young people, how its members are not held to the same laws as “civilians” (furthering the exceptionalist attitude of those in the military being somehow better human beings than those who are not…sorry but my dad joining the military in the 1960s to get his college paid for to become a hydrologist, or my brother joining so he could learn to fly planes? Hardly heroic – it’s just what they did to make ends meet), how blind obedience is stressed and that everything a member does is supposedly to “protect our freedom” – even though the truth is, most military actions have been economic in nature. As WWII veteran George Evans said about the cult of military triumphalism, “Wars are stupid. No one who has ever been in one would ever say they are a good idea. They are the triumph of stupidity over diplomacy.” So why the hell are we putting the military up on a pedestal? Why the hell aren’t we utilizing the hearts and souls and bodies of our volunteer services to encourage peace, diplomacy, and understanding? Why the hell aren’t we taking the billions of dollars in national defense spending to ensure our kids are healthy and educated and safe?“Wars that are not heroic have no real heroes, except for the people who oppose those wars. Far from being the heroes of recent wars, American troops are among their victims. No rational person can blame the soldier, the Marine, the airman, or the Navy man for the stupid and destructive foreign policy of the U.S. government, but calling them “heroes,” and settling for nothing less, makes honest and critical conversations about American foreign policy less likely to happen. If all troops are heroes, it doesn’t make much sense to call their mission unnecessary and unjust. It also makes conversations about the sexual assault epidemic, or the killing of innocent civilians, impossible. If all troops are heroes, it doesn’t make any sense to acknowledge that some are rapists and sadists.”~ David Masciotra, Salon

And finally, in the #RESIST words of blogger You Grow Girl, advice for those who are still fighting the good fight for a world that won’t sit back and let that blowhard #45 fuck things up for the people and our Earth: “Don’t be good; be defiant.”

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One thought on “Eco-licious”

I got drawn in by pretty pictures and then got angry… and motivated! Still so much work to be done. I agree with you 100% about the military. Most of my family has served in one branch of the military and fought overseas, they agree it is stupid. Growing up with a dad with PTSD, a war will effect families for years.

I’m with you on the military comments. I hate the way it gets totally glorified. Also it was awful that Trump plans to increase military spending to the detriment of worthwhile causes such as meals for the elderly and art programs, I didn’t realise the rape and sexual assault numbers were so high in the military, that’s horrific.

He wants to cut everything – all social, health and environmental funding, and now his latest goal is to also cut infrastructure funding for things like roads and bridges and force it over to the states to pay for, along with privatizing things like roads and air traffic controllers… While simultaneously lying that he’s creating jobs which we all know is a big fat lie. Every day is more disgusting than the last. And the Republican Party – even the ones who claim to be speaking up against his bullshit – are just bending over and taking it for him.